Only a Dream
by HillBot
Summary: Zoro loses Sanji halfway through a battle and finds him in a rough condition.


Title: Only a Dream

Pairing: Zoro x Sanji

Rating: PG - 13

Summary: Zoro loses Sanji halfway through a battle and finds him in a rough condition.

Warnings: Character death (sort of) and One Piece isn't mine.

Notes: I wrote the first quarter of this when I was in the ninth grade and when I found it I tweaked it a lot and added one the rest. I gotta thank my awesome beta poutergeist over on LJ who makes my stories so much better than I could ever expect.

The ground of the battlefield was painted a deep, beautiful crimson. Bodies lay haphazardly, those who were not already gone would join their fallen comrades soon enough. Many men who quickly realized their fate died quietly. They knew these things were bound to happen when they joined the Marines. They had accepted this fate long ago. Some still struggled though, looking for the next breath that they would never find. They cried out in agony, cursing the man who had brought to them their untimely deaths. 'We're so young!' they would scream. 'I have a family! A wife and a child!' the voices chorused, slowly trailing off into nothing.

It was a grisly scene that would quickly empty the stomach of an average man. But Roronoa Zoro can not, nor can any of the other Straw Hats, be considered normal people. That is why he currently stood unaffected in the middle of a scene that could have been ripped right out of a movie. Blood, gore, and limbs encircled him but his surroundings were the last thing on his mind. He was too busy searching for Sanji, who had gone noticeably missing from his back about halfway through the fight. It wasn't the first time the two of them had been separated while fighting so Zoro hadn't put much thought into it in the heat of the battle. Now though, worry was beginning to creep at the base of his neck.

Zoro and Sanji had thought the open meadow they'd been picnicking in was far enough away from the town and well hidden to give them a great deal of privacy together. It hadn't been more than an hour when marines began marching into the meadow, their training grounds, to go through some routine exercises. What they got was anything ibut/i routine. The two Strawhats were recognized immediately and the fighting broke out. There hadn't been many at first but soon reinforcements seemed to pile in and they were coming at the pirates in waves. They weren't strong at all by Zoro and Sanji's standards but both knew the danger of underestimating an opponent so they continued to fight with all they had.

Now, Zoro stood alone in the once beautiful meadow searching for something he was sure would never be seen again amongst the fallen men. A sign of life. His nakama, friend, rival, and lover all rolled into one, that one thing that held more importance to him than his own swords, even his own life. He strained his eyes, hoping to catch a glimpse of that bright blonde hair that he would often run his fingers through on nights he could not sleep. He begged his eyes to find the handsome face that, much to Zoro's dismay, was always covered by the aforementioned blonde.

In an act of desperation Zoro cupped his hands around his mouth and called out to the man. _"SANJIIIIIII!"_ He received no answer and hadn't really expected one either. He pushed the body of a dead marine out of the way with his foot and made to keep walking but was stopped suddenly by a hand clutching his pant leg tightly. His first thought was an incredibly determined marine so he turned around to speed up the inevitable but halted his sword in mid-swing.

It wasn't a marine. He had found what he was looking for but not necessarily in the state one would have hoped. Sanji was on his back, one hand still holding rigidly to Zoro's pants while the other was bloodied and pressed to his chest. The cook seemed to be shivering despite the fact that they were on a summer island. Zoro knelt down slowly and eased Sanji's hand from the death grip it had on his pants. He leaned over the man and took in what he desperately wanted to look away from but, for some twisted reason, he could not. Sanji's uncovered eye was locked on Zoro's. His mouth was moving, repeating something softly over and over, but Zoro couldn't hear it. Blood slowly trickled from the corner of his mouth as he spoke. The green haired man took his thumb and tenderly dragged it along the crimson trail, removing the blood from the blonde's face.

The swordsman gently lifted Sanji's blood-spattered hand away from his chest and blanched. There was a large hole in his chest and it wasn't a clean wound either, like that of a gun. Zoro recognized the weapon though. He had seen the marines use it before in his bounty hunting days and had thought it incredibly cruel, even by his standards. They were called spider grenades getting their name from their uncanny resemblance to the arachnid. Upon hitting the target, the grenade would latch itself into the enemy's skin and explode. Sanji had been caught by an unlucky shot, and Zoro knew that there was no coming back from this.

"Sanji..." was all Zoro could say. He sounded almost astonished, as if he thought something like this was impossible. Like he never foresaw how likely something of this nature was to happen amidst such a large battle. Zoro felt like he was going to be sick or pass out. A sight like this had never fazed him before. It never even earned a second glance. Countless battles and countless deaths. He'd seen more than his fair share of pain and suffering. It never bothered him before, so why now? He knew why. All those times he had witnessed the deaths of loved ones, they were never his own. He had always dealt out this kind of pain, never received it until now. He never had to actually isee/i someone he cared for die, never had to hold them in his arms while they slipped away so quickly that you could never hold on tight enough.

The green haired man closed his eyes and bumped his blood stained forehead to the other man's, at a loss for what to do. No matter how fast he got Sanji back to the ship, there was no guarantee that Chopper would even be there. The reindeer had gone into town for supplies and said he wouldn't be back until much later. He could take him into town but Zoro had no idea how to get there. He was sure he wouldn't be able to find it until nightfall. _Shit, shit, SHIT!_ Zoro cursed the marines, himself, and the whole situation he was currently in. For the first time in his life, Zoro felt utterly helpless.

"Zoro..."

Zoro's eyes flew open and his ears perked up but he didn't move away from Sanji. "Zoro," said the blonde man once more, struggling to get the sound out. "I'm so-"

"No. Don't say it. Just be quiet, you're wasting your energy."

Sanji ignored him and kept talking anyways. "I'm sorry... this... happened." He said between labored breaths.

"Shut up!" Zoro barked. "This wasn't your fault, so don't act like it is." He gently pushed aside the cooks blood matted hair. Neither of them said anything when salty tears began to fall and wash away the smears of blood covering Sanji's face. They sat out Sanji's last moments in complete silence, saying all that needed to be said with their eyes. As Sanji took his final shuddering breaths Zoro saw nothing but love reflecting back at him in those big blue eyes. He returned the look with all the intensity he had.

He remained there for a long time, cradling his dead lover in his arms and sitting truly alone in a field of men.

Zoro jolted awake from one of the worst nightmares he'd had since he was a child. In his youth he'd had terrible recurring dreams of Kuina falling down an endless flight of stairs but then his sensei had taught him meditation and he learned to control most of them. Zoro reconnected with his surroundings. He was on the deck of the _Thousand Sunny_ and it was very dark out, probably around midnight. Everyone was in bed by now, save for Usopp who was stuck on watch. He began calming his breathing and repeated over and over to himself that what he had seen was only a dream.

_But wait! What if it_ wasn't _a dream?_

Zoro was on his feet and rushing towards the boys' cabin in an instant, climbing down the ladder as quickly and quietly as possible. He stood in the middle of the room, frantically looking about the room for the blonde whose death he had just witnessed. He searched every hammock three times over before he saw what he was searching for out of the corner of his eye. He'd missed it at first because his eyes had not yet adjusted to the darkness of the room.

Sanji was asleep on the couch, his tie and suit jacket discarded on the chair behind him. Zoro stood over him, watching the man sleep for a moment before unbuttoning the front of his dress shirt, just to be certain. He laid his hand on the smooth, scar free skin, allowing himself to feel every reassuring heartbeat underneath his palm. He felt Sanji's deep, even breathing change and knew the man was awake but did not acknowledge it.

"What's up, Marimo?" Sanji said sleepily

"Nothing. Go back to sleep, it was only a dream." He whispered back before lying next to the man and pillowing his head on the thin chest, allowing the heart beat to lull him into a peaceful, dreamless sleep. He had two final thoughts before he finally drifted off; one, he was going to add a lot more meditation to his training schedule, and two, he was going to keep a closer eye on Sanji in battle from now on.

Sanji remained awake for a little while longer, pondering Zoro's unexpected actions. He ran his fingers through the mossy hair in an effort to sooth the worries he had seen in his lover's face. He had the same look Sanji remembered seeing reflected in his own eyes whenever he woke up from the haunting nightmares he used to have, back on the _Baratie_. The ones where he was still stranded on that rock and help _never_ showed up. He held the larger man tighter to his chest and resolved to do for Zoro what Zeff did for him every night. He would make the milk concoction that the Old Man gave to him before bed, its sweetness and warmth provided relief and helped stave off those terrible, terrible dreams. Sanji dropped a kiss on the top of Zoro's head before lying back in bed and allowing sleep to take him under once more


End file.
